New Colorado rules bar sugary drinks, restrict TV at day care centers

An overhaul to the rules for licensed child care centers in Colorado is getting praise from health and child advocates for provisions that ban sugary drinks, limit television viewing and require playground time and healthy meals.

But some center owners worry that other changes aimed at reducing expulsions and suspensions will be costly, and that the entire set of revisions could put some centers out of business. State officials dispute that the new regulations will be a burden and say they'll provide resources to help the centers meet them.

The new standards affect about 2,000 child care centers in the state that provide care to more than 100,000 children. The changes won't impact nearly 2,500 licensed child care operators who care for about 18,000 children statewide in their homes.

State officials plan to update rules governing child care homes in the state next year.

"We're trying to create a safe and healthy environment for children in Colorado at a time when their brains are developing," said Kathryn Harris, president of Qualistar Colorado, a statewide nonprofit group that evaluates child care programs in the state and supported the packet of rule changes for centers.

The new licensing rules, approved last month by the Colorado Board of Human Services, will go into effect Feb.1. Work on drafting the new standards began in 2010. The changes address everything from staff training to how centers provide transportation to children. The measures dealing with nutrition and physical activity and expulsions are generating the most attention.

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Officials at health advocacy groups in Colorado hope the provisions dealing with nutrition, physical activity and television time will address some troubling health statistics for Colorado. While adults in the state , on average, are the leanest in the nation, Colorado children rank in the middle of the pack on that measure compared with children in other states.

Further, surveys also find health disparities in Colorado children based on socio-economic status. About 21 percent of Latinos in Colorado between ages 2 and 14 are obese while about 15 percent of all Coloradans in that age group are obese, according to surveys by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

"These new standards represent a pretty huge step forward for kids in Colorado," said Jake Williams, executive director for Healthier Colorado, a health advocacy nonprofit. "For the first time, there will be standards in the state for nutrition, physical activity and screen time. Before this there were either no rules or minimal standards on those fronts."

He said other states, such as Texas and Georgia, have rules for child care centers that address sugar-sweetened drinks. Other states address television time or physical activity requirements in their rules for centers.

"But as a package, this represents a very unique step forward as a state," Williams said. "The package managed to cover many aspects at once whereas other states have just a patchwork of components."

State Sen. Kevin Lundberg, a Republican from Berthoud who helped defeat another effort in 2011 to overhaul licensed child care center rules in Colorado, said the latest revisions aren't nearly as drastic as the earlier effort. That proposal sought to specify the number of crayons allowed in a classroom, mandate the type of race of dolls children could play with along with other changes critics labeled as onerous.

"These are more reasonable, but I still have some concerns," said Lundberg, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.

He said the new rules do nothing to address the high cost of licensed child care centers in Colorado, which surveys show are among the most costly in the nation. The rules will lower costs in some areas, such as requiring less training for some staffers, but they will increase costs elsewhere, particularly when dealing with problem children with emotional needs, Lundberg said.

The main area of contention for some center providers are changes aimed at decreasing suspensions and expulsions.

Sandy Bright, who owns 15 licensed centers in Weld County, is especially concerned about the new rule requiring centers to provide "individualized social and emotional intervention supports for children who need them." Licensed centers also must develop policies on providing access to early childhood mental health consultants when needed.

Bright fears the centers will end up bearing the costs of those mental health consultants and that the new rules will require centers to work with problem children as opposed to expelling them. She said a child with challenging behavior can pose a threat to the rest of the children and staff and can require constant, full-time monitoring by one staffer.

"The problem is there is no funding to help you with the children with behavioral and social needs," Bright said. "And having to bring in mental health professionals before you disenroll, how do you pay for all that and still keep your other children safe?"

A network of 17 public mental health consultants will be available for the centers to access throughout the state at no charge, said Mary Ann Snyder, director of Colorado's Office of Early Childhood, which regulates licensed centers. She added that licensed care centers also will get free training on how to handle challenging children, who have become a priority for federal officials too.

If child care centers keep resorting to just kicking certain children out, then eventually parents will have to quit work and start providing the care, she added.

"Expulsions and suspensions are a big problem," Snyder said. "We want continuity of care for kids that will allow families to continue to work."

Bill Jaeger, vice president for early childhood initiatives for the Colorado Children's Campaign, a nonprofit advocacy group, said the new rules are a product of discussions over the past five years.

"This will give parents assurances that their children are given healthy food and playground activities while there are limitations on screen time and sugary drinks," he said.

New standards for child care centers in Colorado will address, among other issues, nutrition and physical activity. The new rules:

• Bar centers from providing sugar-sweetened drinks to children and limit the serving of fruit juices to a maximum of two servings per week. Parents still will be free to supply their own drink choices at drop-off.

New rules may require serving a greater variety of fruits and vegetables, more whole grains and less sugar and fat.

• Bar television and video viewing for children under 2 years of age and prohibit the use of electronic devices during snack or meal times. For children older than 2, television and video recorded time will be limited to 30 minutes per week.

• Require that daily physical activity be provided to preschool age and older children for no less than 60 minutes a day for full-day programs. Infants must receive outdoor play time at least three time a week, weather permitting.

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